Toddler Teeth - should I be worrried?

[mscongeniality]

My DS is a 34 weeker premie and is now 22 months old but only now has one of his bottom incisors erupted. He is the slowest teether I've ever seen, his first tooth didn't erupt until 16 months. Now he has 6 at the top including 4 front ones and 2 molars and also has 2 molars at the bottom but not the lower incisors! The bottom incisor that has cut through is taking ages to grow out. I'm getting concerned because I read that incisors should be the first teeth to form?

Anyone had this?

My son was completely toothless until he was almost a year old, then he cut his top central incisors first. He wandered around looking like bugs bunny until he was 14 months before cutting his bottom central incisors. Then at 17 months he started cutting his canines and first molars up top. And that's it so far.

I asked his pediatrician at our 18 month wellness appointment a couple of days ago if I should be concerned about the haphazard order his teeth were arriving in and she said no, that some kids just don't pop their teeth through in the usual order and it makes absolutely no difference in the end and they have as good a chance of ending up with a full, normal set of teeth as a child who grows them on time and in the more typical order.

That said, missing teeth which have simply failed to grow is not that uncommon, particularly if there is a familial link. There are quite a few people in my DH's family (DH included) who are quite simply missing their top lateral incisors. So I will be waiting to see if my son is going to be one of them!

Register him with your dentist (you can do this anytime from birth) and make him an appointment. Ask them.
My 9mo has just been for his first dentist appointment - it's less about inspecting teeth at this point and more about asking questions like this and getting them used to going to the dentist.

My 25 month old is similar - he has 11 teeth (insists finally coming through after a huge 5 month break with no teeth.

I would wait a bit longer be fore you worry and on a plus point late teeth is better as they are protected in the gums as supposed to sugars! I'm just hoping they will all come through but I think they will